Rhyme-ability

Rhyme-ability

Robert writes:

I have been praised for my ability to rhyme quickly and effectively in an improvised song. People seem to think that I’m good at that. They point to the things like my being able to create fast internal rhyme as evidence of this claim.

Here’s what I say to all you would-be-praisers:

You are correct. :)

But that’s not all I say.

The truth is that we can all rhyme and I am no better at it than you or you or even you. What I am really good at is justification and moving ahead with full commitment even though I have no clue where I am heading.

Let’s say I have just sung the line, “There is nothing prettier than the sun” (which I would never sing because I think it’s a load of CRAP!), my brain then immediately picks a word to rhyme with ‘sun’ at the same time that I am moving ahead with melody and finding out if that melody is even gonna need me to rhyme with ‘sun’. For this case, let’s say that I DO have to rhyme with ‘sun’ and my brain has first found the word ‘shun’ (which, by the way, is what it did). Most of the time I will simply accept that word and just keep moving in the combined emotional direction of both that word and the lyric thus far, all the while continuing to let melody lead. Then I justify. How does ‘shun’ fit into the emotional and specific context in which I currently find myself? I answer this question with as much dignity and commitment as possible and there, my friends, is my new lyric and somehow the appearance of genius.

Remember this: you too can RHYME! You have been doing it for a long TIME. It’s a feeling that is subLIME and is, in no way, a CRIME. Let the bells CHIME for though it may be sometimes as bitter as LIME and there may often be a long way to CLIMB, I’M telling you….you too can RHYME!